Summary:
The city of Kenner, Louisiana, is home to 10 schools within the Jefferson Parish school district, serving primarily elementary students (PK-5 or PK-8) alongside one high school and one alternative school, with a total enrollment of about 8,808 students and a high rate of economic disadvantage across all schools.
The standout performer in Kenner is Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy, an alternative school that defies its high poverty rate (68.58% free/reduced lunch) by achieving exceptional academic results—69% proficiency in Math and 80% in ELA—alongside a remarkable 94.6% graduation rate and the city’s lowest chronic absenteeism rate at 5.1%. In stark contrast, Bonnabel Magnet Academy High School, the city’s only traditional high school, struggles significantly with a 62.3% graduation rate, a 9.9% dropout rate, and a 41.6% chronic absenteeism rate, far exceeding the state average. Among elementary schools, Tom Benson School and G.T. Woods School show the lowest math proficiency (39%), while Walter Schneckenburger Elementary School experienced a notable decline from a 47th percentile rank to a 24th percentile rank in recent years.
A critical city-wide issue is the "8th grade slump" in math, where schools like Chateau Estates School and A.C. Alexander School see proficiency drop from over 65% in 7th grade to just 20% in 8th grade. The data strongly links attendance to achievement: Kenner Discovery’s low absenteeism correlates with top scores, while Bonnabel’s high absenteeism correlates with poor outcomes. Overall, the city’s elementary schools perform near district averages, but the high school faces systemic challenges, and inconsistent performance at schools like Greenlawn Terrace Elementary School (which recovered from the 8th to 21st percentile) highlights variability in school leadership and instructional quality.
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